Last night John, Craig, and Baptiste arrived in Barrow.
These three have been part of the NGEE Arctic project from the beginning or
actually slightly before the beginning. Our project officially launched in
spring of 2012, but our geophysical characterization of the Barrow
Environmental Observatory (BEO) started in September, 2011. We visited the
Barrow area as part of a pre-project tour of Alaska in August 2011 and the team
immediately saw opportunities to begin sub-surface research of the ice-rich
tundra environment. So this group, along with Susan, Yuxin, Jonathan, Tim, and
Haruko, all from LBNL has a fair amount of experience working in the Arctic.
In preparation for work this week John, Craig, and Baptiste
spent the morning sorting through the dozen or more boxes shipped ahead of time
to Barrow. UMIAQ stored all the boxes in Building 553 where our supplies can be
a kept dry and secure. We spent an hour organizing instruments, materials, and
supplies; and found that we were missing two boxes. They were not to be found
in any of the usual places. So, with a little help from UMIAQ, we finally
determined that the two missing boxes were still at Northern Air Cargo (NAC) in
town. I drove to the airport during lunch and was happy to locate the boxes
within a few minutes of searching the warehouse. This meant that we had
everything needed for a productive two weeks of geophysical studies.
Once all boxes were accounted for and equipment sorted, John
and Baptiste started assembling the OhmMapper resistivity system. Our team has
previously worked with using electrical resistivity before to characterize
sub-surface properties of active layer and permafrost, but that work has
largely been with a static system. i.e., stainless steel electrodes inserted in
the ground. The OhmMapper is composed of a series of receivers and transmitters
that, when towed behind a snow machine, allow sub-surface profiles to be
determined in a continuous manner. It is possible to acquire a lot of
geophysical information in a very short period of time. We will be using this
system in a couple of days.
While John and Baptiste were working on the OhmMapper system,
mounting it on one of the wooden sleds, Craig and I headed out to the BEO on
snow machines. We received safety training and a proficiency check ride from
Brower Frantz earlier in the day. Travel across the tundra was relatively quick
and we saw plenty of caribou en route to the BEO control shed. Craig and others
from LBNL have arranged for us to broadcast a Google Hangout on Thursday
morning and we wanted to check internet connections from our planned field
location. Everything went according to plan and we will link live with high
school and middle school students in California and Wisconsin for a discussion
of research being conducted in the NGEE Arctic project.
Finally, I recalled seeing an interesting Inupiaq Word for the Month written on the white
board at the UMIAQ office. I went back this afternoon and snapped a picture.
The word is “Cooperation,” and it is one of the core values for the native
people in this area. The word has some interesting attributes, especially in
relation to how people interact with one another in the workplace and beyond.
